Raiding for newbies
"Raiding" in this article means "running instances with 20 or more people". Technically a group of 10 constitutes a raid too, but needs much less organization, devotion and discipline than the bigger raids. A sample career At start, new players usually spend a lot of time playing alone or questing in small groups of less than five players. Sooner or later, the next step is to run small instances with groups of five (the Instance grouping guide helps mastering this style of play). Upon reaching level , many choices are open. The world of PvP can be explored, it's possible to continue playing solo, and there are many options available for group PvE. For small groups there are the heroic five-man instances, groups of 10 can enter the world of raids with Karazhan (and after cleaing Kara continue in Zul Aman). The culmination of the PvE endgame though are the big raids. Not many players even get there, only about half of the players entering Karazhan ever join a 25 man raid. This percentage dwindles with increasing instance difficulty, less than 5% ever enter the current top instance (percentages derived from WoWJutsu). Golden Rule Raiding is a long term team effort. Have patience, and be a good team player. Motivation A common misconception is that raiding is about . Unfortunately, there are these pesky end bosses who need a coordinated and determined effort to master them. In reality raiding is about building and maintaining a team, a close-knit group of players who progress together. The most happy raid members are those who join a run because they like the challenge of the encounters, no matter whether it's a wipe night, a first kill or a farm run; for these players, loot is (usually) nothing but a bonus. People with selfish goals, especially when it comes to loot, usually don't find much pleasure in raids. If not some kind of formalized loot distribution system (like DKP) is used, epic loot is normally distributed on the basis what's best for the raids future success, and not what's optimal for an individual player. There is a fine line between personal goals ("I want to have fun") and group goals ("We want to kill that boss"), but (as in many real life group environments), these goals don't need to be at odds. If it's good for the groups success, even yielding some item (or another advantage) to somebody else can be fun. So be polite and don't put personal goals over those of the whole raid (see the golden rule above). New players should ask themselves the following questions before trying to find a raid group: *Can I regularly spend at least two evenings per week raiding? *Do I want to regularly pay a repair bill of 15g plus 20–50g for consumables per night without receiving any compensation? *Is it alright when somebody else gets the item I'd love to have, even if that decision comes down to politics? *Can I balance my need for individuality with the need to conform to the expectations and dictates of a group? *Do I truly love my chosen class and role, and am I willing to push it to the limit? Only people willing to answer each of these questions with a loud and clear "yes" should seriously consider raiding. It takes a lot of effort, and the rewards are scarce. Timescale When playing solo it is reasonable to expect a reward every 30 minutes or so (after solving a quest). In 5-man instances, it is normal to get about one good item per evening (2–3 hours). The interval between such "successes" in raids is measured in weeks. The 25-man instances reset once a week, so each boss can be killed only once in seven days. Assuming 5 bosses and two drops per boss, this yields 10 items per week, so every single of the 25 players expect at most one item every two weeks. In reality, after the initial rush, when most people have the "basic" items, the wait time is more like one drop per month, it's not uncommon for players to wait even several months for their last cherished item to drop (or never get it at all). Finding a raid The most common and easiest method to start raiding is to find a raiding guild with an open spot. It's actually quite frequent that raiding guilds are looking for new members, because they lost some old hand. The realm forums provided by Blizzard are a very good starting point. If no guilds are currently recruiting, it can't hurt to write a general application there. The alternative would be to try and start a new raiding guild, but this is very hard to do without prior raid experience. In order to have a good chance to get an invite to a raiding guild, the following technical aspects can help: :- Have decent gear. It doesn't have to be all-epic, but there is rather good gear available from heroics and/or PvP), and the odd Karazhan item help to display resolve and dedication :- The Application should be well written and thought out :- Try to find a matching guild The last point is really important and works both ways. A dedicated, reliable and serious player should look for a serious raiding guild, while casual or fun oriented future raiders should look for a more casual guild. Matching player and guild character is actually not so much a question of gear, the more progressed guilds are usually aware that it's hard to gear up beyond a certain level without an opportunity to raid. A somewhat related aspect is that of chosen role and spec. Progress oriented guilds usually have rather tight "job descriptions", when they have a vacant spot for a healing druid, they're usually not interested in a holy paladin. Similarly, serious raid groups usually have only a limited number of "Off-spec" spots (like elemental shaman, retribution paladin), some spec may not be accepted at all. Such rules may be correct or not (elemental shamans for example are according to Nihilum not the best possible class to fill any spot), but unless competing for first kills, the fractional loss of overall efficiency can usually be compensated by a reliable and motivated player. Some guilds may abide by this insight and be ready to fit in off-specs, other guilds may stick with their established rules and only accept certain specs. In casual guilds these rules are usually much more relaxed, and raid leaders are more concerned with getting a stable raid going, than bothering about the optimal mix of classes and specs. Keeping this in mind, players who are fixed on a certain spec should point this out in their application, while those willing (or experienced) in different specs should state that too. Hierarchy In a 5- or 10-man instance group, one group leader can do all the management necessary - one person can organize healing, crowd control and target assignment without there being much danger that something is forgotten or out of sync. In a raid the tasks are much more complicated and specialized, and sometimes require detailed knowledge of class (or build) capabilities, so that actually quite a lot of the management tasks get delegated to "officers", and the raid leader himself mainly focuses on keeping things synchronized. As all hierarchies, this structure can either be maintained out of necessity, because it makes things easier and better organized, or it can be used as a means of suppression. For newbies it's sometimes hard to distinguish these two forms. Normally there are a few extra chat channels set up, for example one channel for healers, one for warlocks and mages, another for hunters, and one for all melee classes. Each of these channels should have one leader, and these leaders join the officer channel where they discuss (together with the raid leader) overall strategy and synchronization. Behavior Unless the task at hand is totally routine (e.g., the 20th MC run before the lava packs), chat should be kept to a minimum. Raids are not a good place to get to know the other members. There are too many people, and there's too little time. When it comes to tactics, newbies should really be careful and first try to understand how this particular raid works. Although on many bosses there are widely accepted strategies, some raids may do things different, and still have success. It is not a good idea to try to teach long term raid members things, justified as it may be. Discussions should not take place during a raid. If there are any issues they should be discussed later with the relevant officer in /w or in some forum, not during the raid. In order to avoid problems be aware that raid or guild leaders and officers frequently behave arrogant or elitist. In most cases, this attitude is actually justified to some point, and serves as a means of self-protection. If approached in a polite and unpresumptuous way, even the most hard-ass leader type will prove that he can be friendly and helpful. Other methods to annoy the raid leader are predicting doom and failure before the pull even begins, or declaring "wipe" when just a few people are dead. It is important for the success of the raid to stay positive, especially when learning new content. A good mantra is "Wiping is fun" (meditate about that - it really helps). Gearing and tactics in a raid One tactical element which may surprise new raiders is that raid bosses are generally 3 levels higher than anything else (73 for level 70 raiders). To kill normal level 70 mobs, stats like AP or spell damage are important, in raids damage dealers should first of all take care to maximize melee or spell +hit rating. Raid healers need to switch their attention from +heal away to higher endurance - 10 minutes is a rather "normal" length for a boss fight, and in order not to run OOM stack Spirit and/or mp5 gear. Beyond that, some encounters may require resistance gear and/or unusually high Stamina scores on some or all raid members. Tanks in particular need quite a large wardrobe to meet the various demands. *Tanks: Must survive as long as possible and quickly build high threat. *DPS: Must be able to hit the target and produce damage on command, and must never draw aggro. *Healers: Must make their mana last the entire battle. *All: Learn positioning and timing. Wiping and wipe recovery A "Wipe" happens when all members of the raid are dead. Part of the challenge of raiding is to recover from this and get moving again quickly. Warlock Soulstones, Paladin Divine Intervention, and Shaman Reincarnation all increase the speed at which the raid can get back on their feet, but frequently enough wipe recovery involves running back from the graveyard. Practiced raid groups who can recover quickly from wipes are generally more successful than those that cannot. While learning a new encounter, wipes will happen every 15–20 minutes, thus in a 3-hour raid (assuming for 15 minutes) a raid that takes 5 minutes to recover from a wipe gets 9 tries at the encounter, where as a raid that takes 15 minutes only gets 6. Loot The drops are usually distributed by a loot master during a raid. The loot rules are normally agreed on beforehand. Most raiding groups use some kind of formalized loot system (with varying degrees of freedom, politics and bureaucracy involved). Drops which are of no immediate use (like Core Leather or the Nexus Crystals from disenchanted epics) usually go to the guild bank. Newbies need to be prudent once more, but there's no reason to despair - even if things look like it's impossible to ever get anything, it's actually quite common that there are many items which nobody else wants to take, and so newbies usually gear up quite fast. Of course, getting the top of the line drops takes much more... patience. Category:Newbies Category:Guides